BSF Design a Learning Environment Competition

Dear Colleagues,

 

Hopefully the workshops provided a good base to start from which to design your own learning environment?

 

To refresh your memory of the event, please find copies of the Gensler presentation, an aspiration chart and the Gensler Design Process Diagram.

 

• Design a Learning Environment Presentation (4mb)
• Aspiration Chart
• Gensler Design Process Diagram

Design a Learning Environment Competition: What are you being asked to do?

By 17 July 2009, all schools should provide the following:

• An A3 layout diagram of your learning environment; You have 112 sq. metres, essentially the same "footprint" as two standard classrooms. How you configure that space is entirely up to you as long as the learning environment equates to 112 sq. metres, e.g.:
  
  - you can work within the two-classroom structure;
  - combine the two classrooms to create a single unified space;
  - reconfigure the space into different shaped-rooms (e.g.: circular, oval, triangular, etc. as long as the total area is equivalent to 112 sq. metres);
  - partition spaces (whether through fixed walls or movable partitions);
  - use double height rooms (e.g. for mezzanine spaces) 
  

A standard layout grid is attached below.

For examples of using the layout grid with non-conventionally shaped rooms, please see the Grid Layout Examples document.

The Gensler Reference Book on Room Layouts provides a guide to the icons used in layouts and includes some example room layouts for specific themed areas.

• Standard A3 Layout Grid
• Grid Layout Examples
• Gensler Reference Book: Room Layout
  
  
• A Power Point presentation outlining the thinking behind your learning environment. This should include details of any school-based consultation exercise undertaken to ensure that the design of your learning environment meets the needs of its projected users.

NB: Although we are requesting that the final presentation is in Power Point format, this is purely because Power Point can be used as a vehicle for multiple media formats, e.g. you can integrate video, audio, animation, CAD, etc. If you would like to incorporate media which Power Point does not support, this can be provided as a separate file.

Some initial considerations

1. Define your learning environment

 At the outset, it is very important to have a clear idea about the theme of your learning environment and the activities that will take place in it.

 

The theme is to be determined by the school. It can, for example, be cross-curricular (e.g. "creativity", "humanities"), curriculum specific (e.g. "arts", "science") or more fluid (e.g. "student resources", "chill-out" zones). It may also address a current school need or address a future need (i.e. if you are a future BSF school, you might want to link this exercise into your school’s initial thoughts on the types of new school facilities to be developed through BSF).

2. Using the Aspiration Chart

The Aspiration Chart is a useful tool in determining the initial considerations of your learning environment. By comparing your school’s current approach to learning with your preferred / aspirational approach to learning, you will already be setting some key guidelines for your learning environment. For example, you may want your learning environment to be more “modern”, more “flexible” and more “informal”. You may have a preference for light, rather than dark, colours; softer lines rather than hard lines. You might also want to add other aspirational considerations, e.g. environmental awareness.

3. Defining the activities taking place in your learning environment

With a clear theme and a clear idea of your aspirations for the environment, you are will already have good idea of the learning environment you would like to develop. But, what types of activities will the environment support? It will help to think in terms of the three learning spaces discussed in the workshops, i.e. Campfires, Watering Holes and Caves:

	A place to learn from a teacher A “listening” space A ”campfire”
	A place to learn with a group A “doing” space A “watering hole”
	A place to learn by yourself or with a friend A “thinking” space A “cave”

 

Depending on the theme of your environment, you will need to work out how much space should be allocated to Campfires, Watering Holes or Caves. Your theme, for example, might dictate that you need more collaborative (Watering Holes) than teaching spaces (Campfires). To make optimum use of space, you might also want spaces to flexible enough to cater for more than one activities, e.g. a lecture theatre type teaching space, could also become a collaborative / performance space.

4. Learning from your environment

You don’t need to reinvent the wheel – these types of spaces are all around you. Think about the places you like to visit: what do you like about them? Is it their architecture? Their ambience? What do these spaces allow you or your friends to “do”? Think about the places you don’t like to visit: what don’t you like about them? Build up a resource of images from their places and others you have researched – these will help illustrate your thinking when it comes to presenting your ideas for the learning environment.

 

You may find the following websites useful:

• www.designshare.com
• www.architecture.com/ 
  Website owned by the Royal Institute of British Architects
• www.cabe.org.uk/schools
  Website owned by the Commission for Architecture & the Built Environment
• www.partnershipsforschools.org.uk
  Partnerships for Schools (PfS) is responsible for delivering the government's secondary school renewal programme, Building Schools for the Future (BSF).
• www.betterpublicbuilding.org.uk/
  Better Public Building initiative rewards excellence in both design and procurement from across the public sector. Site includes numerous case studies of buildings

5. Early designs and consultation

How are you going to discuss your proposals for your learning environment?

Include time within your project to consult on your plans and time to take on board the comments from your consultation. Your presentation should include details of how you have consulted and show how the final design incorporates appropriate responses to your consultation.